Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College Latin: Collegium Beatae Mariae Magdalenae UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Garde ta Foy
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Magdalene College on the River Cam
Master:	Sir Christopher Greenwood
Website:	magd.cam.ac.uk
Location
Grid reference:	TL44715903
Location:	52°12’38"N, 0°6’59"E

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene.

Magdalene counted some of the greatest men in the realm among its benefactors, including Britain's premier noble the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Chief Justice Christopher Wray. Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII, was responsible for the refoundation of the college and also established its motto—garde ta foy (Old French: "keep your faith"). Audley's successors in the mastership and as benefactors of the college were, however, prone to dire ends; several benefactors were arraigned at various stages on charges of high treason and executed.

The college remains one of the smaller in the university, numbering around 400 undergraduate and 200 graduate students. It has maintained strong academic performance over the past decade, achieving an average of ninth in the Tompkins Table and coming second in 2015. Magdalene is home to the Pepys Library, which holds the collection of rare books and manuscripts that belonged to the English diarist Samuel Pepys, an alumnus of the college.

History

Buckingham College

Street front of Magdalene College porter's lodge

Magdalene College was first founded in 1428 as Monk's Hostel, which hosted Benedictine student monks. The secluded location of the hostel was chosen because it was separated from the town centre by the River Cam and protected by Cambridge Castle. The main buildings of the college were constructed in the 1470s under the leadership of John de Wisbech, then Abbot of Crowland. Under the patronage of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, the institution was renamed Buckingham College.

In the 16th century, the Church of England broke away from the Papacy. With the subsequent Dissolution of the Monasteries, the parent abbey of Buckingham College, Crowland Abbey, was dissolved. However, the college remained in operation.

Refoundation

The modern gargoyle of Benedict Spinola

Walden Abbey, one of the Benedictine abbeys associated with Buckingham College, came into the possession of Thomas Audley after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. On 3 April 1542 Audley refounded Buckingham College as the College of Saint Mary Magdalene. Derived from Audley were the arms of Magdalene, including the motto Garde Ta Foy (from Old French for "keep your faith"), and the wyvern as the crest.

Thomas Audley died in 1544 aged 56, only two years after he re-founded the college. He donated to the college seven acres of property at Aldgate in London, which was his reward from Henry VIII for disposing of Anne Boleyn. This property would have brought enormous income had it been retained by the college. However, under the conspiracy of the Elizabethan banker Benedict Spinola, the property was permanently alienated to the Crown in 1574. The transaction involved Spinola luring the master and fellows of the time to accept an increase in the annual rental from £9 to £15 a year in exchange for the property. The loss of the Aldgate property left the college in extreme poverty, and the street front of the college was only completed in the 1580s under the generosity of Christopher Wray, then Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench. The transaction was "almost certainly illegal", and was contested multiple times without success. The first and most famous such lawsuit was pursued in 1615 by Barnaby Goche, who was master of the college between 1604 and 1626. This court case landed Goche and the senior fellow in prison for two years. Goche was subsequently offered £10,000 as a compromise, which he refused to accept. When the Quayside development site of Magdalene College was completed in 1989, a gargoyle of Spinola which spits water into the Cam was installed as a "revenge at last".

The Pepys Building; the Pepys Library

In 1650, Samuel Pepys joined the college. He was best known for his private diaries, known to critics as the Pepys Diary, which provided a major eyewitness account for the Great Fire of London of 1666. Pepys was remembered by the Pepys Library, built around 1700, where the original manuscripts of his diaries and naval records are kept, in addition to his collection of printed books and engravings in their original bookcases. Pepys stipulated in his will that the library was to be left to Magdalene, and have been kept at the college since their donation by Pepys's nephew, John Jackson, in 1724. The building was also home to Magdalene College library, until the construction of the New Library.

Enlightenment

Magdalene College formal hall, c.1870

The hall

Daniel Waterland, a theologian by training, became master of the college in 1714 and prescribed a new curriculum for undergraduate students at Magdalene. His new curriculum included Mathematics, Newtonian Physics, Geography and Astronomy, as well as Classics, Logic and Metaphysics. Waterland was also successful in attracting financial aid for the college, including funds for scholarships. The mathematician Edward Waring was among those who joined the college during this period.

In 1781, Peter Peckard, one of the earliest abolitionists, became master of Magdalene. The Zong massacre of 1781 prompted Peckard to speak strongly against slave trade in his sermons, some of which were published as tracts and pamphlets. Peckard set the college on the course of achieving a wider reputation of scholarship and sound thinking, and was later appointed as vice-chancellor of Cambridge University.

Magdalene continued to be a liberal college through the Victorian era. The college had more liberal admissions policies than most, admitting Arthur Cohen, the first practising Jew to graduate from Cambridge. During the same period, Magdalene also admitted Catholic students such as Charles Januarius Acton, and Asian students who were excluded from many other colleges until after the First World War.

Modern development

The wooden gate leading to the Magdalene Village

The modern development of Magdalene was shaped by A. C. Benson, master from 1915 to 1925. His enthusiasm and attention to detail produced outstanding pieces of poems, essays and literary criticism; his diaries were also studied by many later critics. His financial generosity effected significant impact on the modern appearance of the college grounds: at least 20 inscriptions around the college refer to him. In 1930, Benson Court was constructed and named after him.

From 1972, the previously all-male colleges in Cambridge started admitting women, the first three being Churchill, Clare and King's. In 1985, Oriel College, Oxford, admitted women, making Magdalene the only surviving all-male Oxbridge college. The following year, Magdalene made the decision to admit women and become co-residential. When women joined the college in 1988, some male undergraduates protested by wearing black arm-bands and flying the college flag at half-mast.

Buildings and grounds

Magdalene College is located at the bend of the River Cam on the northwestern side of the town centre, at the foot of Castle Hill. The college was deliberately built on the opposite end of Magdalene Bridge from the town centre so that the Benedictine student-monks would be secluded from the business and temptations of the town. As such, it was the first Cambridge college to be built on the northwestern side of the Cam. The college's main site was previously settled during the Roman period.

The college's buildings are distributed on both sides of the river, and is roughly divided into four areas: the main site, where the oldest buildings including the porter's lodge and the Pepys Library are located; The Village, which was built in the 1930s and consists exclusively of student accommodation; Quayside, built on the southeastern side of the river in the 1980s as an investment project which also provides student accommodation; and Cripps Court, built in the 2000s for extra conference facilities and accommodation.

Magdalene's old buildings are representative of the college's ramshackle growth from a monks' foundation into a centre of education. It is also distinctive in that most of the old buildings are in brick rather than stone (save for the frontage of the Pepys Building). Magdalene Street divides the ancient courts from more recent developments. One of the accommodation blocks in the newer part of the college was built by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the early 1930s. Opened in 2005, Cripps Court, on Chesterton Road, features new undergraduate rooms and conference facilities.

Main site

Inside porter's lodge

Interior of the chapel

The main site of the college is the area bounded by Magdalene Street, Chesterton Lane and the River Cam. It was the original area of college buildings from the 1470s. This area includes Magdalene's First Court, Second Court, Fellows' Garden, and the buildings surrounding them such as the porters' lodge, the Master's Lodge, and the Pepys Library.

Porters' lodge and First Court

Situated on the north-east side of Magdalene Street is the porters' lodge, where mail to members of the college is delivered and distributed. Past the gatehouse by which the porters' lodge is situated lies First Court. The First Court was the earliest court to be built. From 1760 the Court was faced with stucco, but most of the buildings were restored in a project between 1953 and 1966. The chapel was the first to be built in around 1470, while the gatehouse including the porters' lodge and the street-front of the college did not exist until 1585.

The chapel stands in the north range of First Court, and its original construction dates to 1470-72. However, restoration works meant that little of the original chapel other than the original roof remains. Since the college is dedicated to Mary Magdalene, much of the chapel's artwork describes her story. The glass windows on the eastern wall of the chapel are dedicated to the encounters between Mary Magdalene and Jesus around the time of the crucifixion of Jesus: anointing Jesus with her jug of ointment, watching the crucifixion, weeping at the tomb and recognising Jesus after his resurrection. Compared to most other Cambridge colleges of mediæval origin, Magdalene's chapel is smaller in line with the college's relatively small population. Despite its smaller size, however, the chapel's physical proportions are in keeping with those of other mediæval Oxbridge college chapels, reflecting the traditional layout of Solomon's Temple: the ratio of Magdalene's antechapel, choir, and sanctuary (1:4:2) matches that of the Temple's porch, Holy Place, and Holy of Holies. In 2000, the chapel received a new Baroque-style pipe organ built by Goetze & Gwynn.

Past the chapel, the hall separates the First Court to the west and the Second Court to the east. This is where formal dinners are served. The hall itself was built in the early 16th century, again with many later refurbishments but never gas or electric lighting — Magdalene's hall is unique in Oxbridge in relying solely on candlelight. To the far end of the hall is the High Table, placed on a platform one step above ground level, where fellows and their guests dine. Students dine at three long benches in front of and perpendicular to the High Table and spanning to the entrance. Flanking the entrance is a double staircase leading to a minstrels' gallery and the senior combination room. The walls of the hall are decorated with 15 portraits of notable benefactors and past members.

First Court

Both the old and new Master's Lodges are located just to the north of First Court. The old Master's Lodge, connected to the building in which the porters' lodge is situated, was built in the 16th century and vacated in 1835. The Master's Lodge then moved to a new location about 60 yards north of the previous location. This new lodge was rebuilt in 1967 to give the Master a less grandiose, but more comfortable residence. The building which was the first Master's Lodge is now known as Old Lodge and is predominantly used for student accommodation. A number of senior fellows and students have rooms in the buildings surrounding First Court, including the Bursar, the Senior Tutor, and the Chaplain, as well as the President of the Middle Combination Room, the President of the Junior Combination Room, and the Captain of Boats.

Second Court and gardens

Past the formal hall, the Second Court is marked by the Pepys Building, where the Pepys Library is housed. The architect and polymath Robert Hooke, otherwise best known for coining the idea of a biological cell, participated in designing this building in 1677, and construction carried on from then until the 1700s because of the college's lack of money. The inscription on the arch in front of the building, Bibliotheca Pepysiana 1724, refers to the year in which the Pepys Diary was donated to the college, rather than the year in which the building was completed. Because of the famous Pepys Diary, the Pepys Library became a popular tourist destination in Cambridge. The ground and basement levels of the Pepys Building hosted the college library where undergraduate course books were available. The Pepys Building was constructed in such a way that it would provide a good view of the Fellows' Garden.

Fellows' Garden Path in autumn

Also situated on Second Court is Bright's Building, named after Mynors Bright, notable for having deciphered the Pepys Diary. It was built in 1908–09 by Aston Webb to provide extra accommodation to host increasing numbers of undergraduate students. The largest room in Bright's Building is Ramsay Hall, named after Allen Beville Ramsay. The room was intended to be a lecture room, but it was refurbished in 1949 to become the college's canteen.

The Fellows' Garden, situated behind Pepys Building, included a Roman-era flood barrier bank which became today's Monk's Walk, a raised footpath leading from the south side of Pepys Building to the exit of the Fellows' Garden on Chesterton Lane. At the time of the college's establishment in 1428, the Fellows' Garden was a series of fishponds. The fishponds were filled between 1586 and 1609, but it was not until the 1660s that plans to cultivate a garden on the land were realised. Most of the trees planted in the original plan of the garden were chopped down and replaced in a renovation in the early 1900s, under the instruction of botanist Walter Gardiner. Many of the newly planted trees were black poplars and its variant, Lombardy poplars. Some fruit trees, such as quince, cherry and plum trees, were planted in the 1980s-90s. Squirrels, and the occasional woodpecker may be spotted in the garden; there are also a few flowerbeds in the garden in which the gardeners grow seasonal flowers. Near the northwest corner of the Fellows' Garden lies a Victorian pet cemetery with several gravestones and statues of departed dogs and cats of the College.

Adjacent to the Fellows' Garden are two other gardens: the Master's Garden, which is part of the Master's Lodge and separated from the Fellows' Garden by a brick wall, and the River Court, a small, brick-paved patch of land between Bright's Building and the River Cam, where seasonal flowers are on display in the flowerbeds.

Village

Benson Court

Mallory Court

The area of the college across Magdalene Street from porter's lodge, bounded by Magdalene Street, Northampton Street, the River Cam and St John's College is known as the Magdalene Village. It includes Benson Court, Mallory Court and Buckingham Court, and consists almost exclusively of student accommodation. The area of the Village was developed over a period of 45 years by three architects, Harry Redfern, Sir Edwin Lutyens and David Roberts. The first building to be developed was Mallory Court B (1925–26) and the last was the new Buckingham Court building (1968–70). Lutyens had an original plan which involved demolishing many existing buildings in the area and constructing new buildings that matched the general look and feel of the college's main site, but this plan was scrapped due to insufficient funding and the only part of Lutyens' plan that was realised was the Lutyens building.

Passing through an obscure wooden gate opposite the porter's lodge, the open courtyard of Benson Court can be seen. Benson Court was named after A. C. Benson, master of Magdalene College from 1915 to 1925. Benson was best known for writing the lyrics of Land of Hope and Glory, a British patriotic song set to the tune of Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. The cottages to either side of the entrance pathway are all pre-existing buildings that were converted into student accommodation in the 1960s. In particular, Benson Court H is one of the few buildings in college whose structure survived from the 16th century, and presents its 17th-century facade which was previously known as Cross Keys Inn to the street front of Magdalene Street. To the left of the courtyard is a gentle grassy slope where the college punts are moored and parties are held in the summer.

Across the courtyard is the Lutyens building, also designated Benson A-E, which was built and named after Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect who planned much of the Village. Due to a lack of funding, it was the only part of Lutyens' original grandiose plan that was built. Part of the building's cost was sponsored by subscriptions raised by Harvard in memory of Henry Dunster, who studied in Magdalene in 1627–1630 and became a founding father of Harvard University.

Quayside

Cripps Court Orangery

Most of the buildings bounded by the River Cam, Bridge Street and Thompson's Lane are owned by Magdalene College, despite being covered by shop-fronts and restaurants on the ground level. Many of these buildings are part of the Quayside development project, built between 1983 and 1989, as part of a business plan of the college. As for student accommodation, this part of the college includes the Bridge Street and Thompson's Lane hostels.

Cripps Court

Cripps Court is situated on the opposite side of Chesterton Road from the main site of the college. It was built between 2003 and 2005 in response to increasing demands for extra accommodation and conference facilities. The site of Cripps Court is a natural southerly slope, which can be seen from the stepped courtyard in between the buildings. The court was sponsored by, and named after, the Cripps family headed by Humphrey Cripps. It contains a 142-seat auditorium, 5 seminar rooms, an oak-roofed event gallery also called the orangery, and about 60 student rooms.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Magdalene College, Cambridge)

• Magdalene College

References

• Cunich, Hoyle, Duffy, and Hyam (1994). A History of Magdalene College Cambridge, 1428-1988. Cambridge: Crampton & Sons. ISBN 978-0952307303.
• Hyam, Ronald (2011). Magdalene Described: A Guide to the Buildings of Magdalene College Cambridge, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Magdalene College Publications.
• Hughes, M. E. J. (2015). The Pepys Library: And the Historic Collections of Magdalene College Cambridge. London: Scala. ISBN 978-1-85759-953-4.